French Speed Cameras - another development

Brace yourselves, this a screen grab from Le Parisien, I know that most of you probably don't use the AutoRoute that much and that when you do the price of diesel dictates lower speeds anyway but you should read this:

'AN ORDINARY-looking Renault Megane is the latest weapon against speeders on France’s roads – with a new-generation speed camera built into the dashboard and a detector radar behind the numberplate.

The car is the first of a fleet of 300 cars carrying the radars which are practically invisible and almost undetectable. They will start operations on March 15 in around 20 departments. Each is capable of detecting speeding vehicles and photographing them, without flash, while on the move at motorway speeds.

Although unmarked cars are used, the officers driving them will still be in uniform and for the initial period only drivers who overtake the unmarked car will be penalised.

The cars will also only target high-speed drivers, with senior Sécurité Routière official Aurélien Wattez saying they were aimed at motorists who ignored restrictions everywhere except where there were road-side cameras. They are set to catch drivers speeding at more than 10% above the road’s limit – above 143kph on the bulk of French autoroutes.

It is intended to bring in 300 equipped vehicles over the next three years in a bid to cut road deaths – with excess speed blamed for 26% of fatal road accidents in 2012, around 1,000 deaths'.

Pierre Chasseray, of drivers’ group 40 Millions d'Automobilistes, said on Europe 1: “Obviously, if it is a weapon against idiot drivers then one cannot be against it; but if it is just a new way to trap drivers it will lead to real hostility against speed cameras.”

• The number of road deaths fell 8.8% in January, with 271 people dying in accidents, Sécurité Routière revealed.

I rarely overtake anything on the Autoroute, let alone covert black Meganes with speed cameras in them. The 56mph fuel-saving empty road pootle is one of the great pleasures of the France trip as far as I'm concerned. Let others do all the hurtling if it pleases them.

'Aren't you happy just to be alive? Anything's possible' - Pulp, 'Dishes'

The departments in France where these new “invisible” mobile speed cameras are to be launched on March 15 are: Ile-de-France plus Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Calvados, Essonne, Haute-Garonne, Gironde, Ille-et-Vilaine, Loir-et-Cher, Loire-Atlantique, Loiret, Moselle, Nord, Oise, Pyrénées-Orientales, Rhône, Somme and Vaucluse.
We are glad it does not include Limousin (not that we exceed the speed limit, you'll understand)!!:Rofl1::Rofl1:
Bobwww.parcverger.com

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined